Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

My blood boiled with rage. Iris, pinned down on the table and slumped over, had a swollen cheek from being struck, and her entire body was covered in painful-looking wounds. Given that her skin was originally white and translucent, the sheer gruesomeness of her injuries made me sick to my stomach. It was hard to say we had made it in time, but we had arrived at a very precarious moment—she had barely managed to stay safe just short of that final, truly irreversible line.

“You idiot, don’t back down! If you came here to save her, I’ll take her hostage…!”
“Ah, sorry, but… that’s not going to happen.”

Suddenly, an imperceptible force field—Sol’s spell, “Invisible Shield”—spread out around the fallen Iris. Immediately afterward, with a deafening crash, the window shattered into fine dust.

“Ow, ow, ow!? …Gyaa!?”
“Gyaah, my head… Gah!?”

As the henchmen—who had been holding Iris, instinctively shielded his head from the raining shards—a figure leaped through the window. The very next moment, Sol launched his attack. Spinning to absorb the impact of his landing, he slashed the throat of the first man on the left. The moment his spin stopped, he lunged forward, thrusting his blade into another man’s heart as he passed by. Having inflicted fatal wounds on both men in the blink of an eye, Sol swiftly draped his cloak—which he had apparently removed beforehand—over Iris’s bare body.

“…Force Shield!!”

He thrust the shield into the floor with all his might. The slightly pointed tip pierced the stone floor, and using the shield as a pivot, a protective barrier spread out to shield Iris. “Force Shield.” A Nightlord skill that generated an extremely durable barrier around the user’s shield. Although it had a fatal flaw for a tank class—forcing the user to let go of their shield—it was the most impenetrable defense imaginable for protecting VIPs. Now, the men surrounding her could no longer lay a finger on her.

When we stormed this mansion, the flash of light we saw had already revealed that Iris was in a room on the second floor. While I charged head-on to draw their attention, Sol leaped from the cliff towering behind the house to isolate Iris from the enemies. It was a brute-force maneuver that hardly qualified as a strategy, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was really a tank—his lightning-fast movements were nothing short of impressive. In the blink of an eye, our biggest concern—her safety—was secured, and we no longer had to worry. As everyone stood frozen by the sudden reversal of the situation, Sol and I easily took up our positions, shielding Iris behind us while covering each other’s backs.

“I have no intention of letting a single one of you escape. As for you lot who hurt and humiliated my Iris… I have absolutely no intention of letting you live.”
“I agree. Don’t even think about begging for mercy now…!”

The sight of Iris’s pitiful state from earlier was seared into my eyes, and even now, fresh rage boiled up inside me. With no hesitation or doubt in the hands gripping our weapons, we both lunged ferociously at our targets to vent that rage.

.
　
In an instant, the room descended into chaos. Every time Sol’s sword flashed as he dashed back and forth, fresh blood spattered everywhere and death throes echoed through the air. True to our declaration that we wouldn’t let a single one of these b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲ escape, Sol prioritized the enemies trying to flee. Meanwhile, I didn’t give anyone who raised a weapon and showed intent to fight a single chance to react—I cut them down, cleaving straight through whatever weapons they held. In the blink of an eye, the fairly spacious room turned into a sea of blood, and the number of men still standing rapidly dwindled.

“There are only two of them! What the hell are you doing?! Damn it, why are guys like this even out here in the middle of nowhere?! …Iris? So that’s it—she’s the rumored Jewel Princess…?! No wonder she’s such an incredibly beautiful princess—she’s the real deal, isn’t she…!!”

Those words, which I couldn’t simply ignore, came from the mouth of the bandits’ leader. The “Jewel Princess” was supposed to be just a nickname the game’s developers had slapped on her. Yet it was known in this world too… Could it be that the events from the game were somehow influencing this world as well…?

“Damn it, I screwed up… If she was such a high-value b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲, I should’ve r̲a̲p̲e̲d̲ her right away instead of messing around… At least it would’ve made a good parting gift for the afterlife…!!”

The desperate boss suddenly stood up, apparently intending to catch me off guard, and lunged at me with a rusty sword—but he was far too slow. I recalled the feel of a certain skill from the game and visualized it in my mind. My blade was enveloped in the dazzling light of fighting spirit. The Sword Saint Technique, Flashing Blossom. I countered with this move, the most powerful one I had ever mastered. I deftly slipped my body inside the arc of his swing and, as we passed each other, made a shallow slash across his side. It looked like a minor wound, but… that was all I needed.

“Ugh!? B-but, this is… this is all you’ve got…?! What the—! Guh, gah! Aaaaaah!!?”

From the wound I had just inflicted, the fighting spirit I had infused into my sword—and left inside him—erupted. The wound swelled into a lumpy mass and exploded right before his eyes. What remained were two halves of his body, their mass drastically reduced. They fell with a heavy thud, scattering sticky, squelching gore across the floor. By then, the light had already vanished from his eyes.

“Eek!? B-Boss!?”
“W-Wait, I surrender!! Please, just spare my life…!”

Witnessing that gruesome death, everyone remaining instantly lost their nerve and began begging for mercy. I’d heard somewhere that brutally dispatching the leader was a surefire way to crush the morale of those around him. It seemed that by unleashing my full-power attack in a fit of rage, I had unconsciously achieved exactly that effect. The sight of these men suddenly spouting such selfish demands made me sick to my stomach.

“…All right.”

A momentary wave of relief washed over the crowd at the muttered words, but,

“I’ll only spare the ones who actually stopped when she asked them to.”

The room froze. Of course, there was no way anyone like that was among them, and I had absolutely no intention of going out of my way to check each person individually. Ah, how utterly selfish. It seemed that intense anger actually helped me stay calm. Thinking with a strangely detached mind—*I must look pretty dangerous myself*—I cut them down one by one: those still trying to make excuses, those trying to shift the blame onto others, and those trying to run away.

It took less than five minutes to finish cleaning up everything.

.

Iris was still asleep. To make sure she didn’t get cold, I took out my own coat to add to Sol’s and wrapped her in it. The poncho I had found earlier—which I assumed belonged to Iris—didn’t seem too dirty or damaged, so I draped it over her as well, bundling her up tightly. When I picked her up, she felt as light as a feather. Seeing her body, so frail it seemed it might break at the slightest touch, made my heart ache at the thought of the torment she must have endured. Precisely because her features were so perfectly formed, her swollen left cheek—the result of being struck—looked all the more pitiful.

Now that we had retrieved Iris and my mind had cleared, I began to feel a sense of dread at how we had behaved. The fact that we had just killed people—even realizing it at this late stage—weighed heavily on my chest, and my hands started to tremble. It struck me as terrifying that I, an ordinary person until yesterday, had acquired the power to take a life so easily in the span of just a few moments.

However… when I felt the weight and body heat of my friend—who had now become a young girl—breathing peacefully in my arms as if relieved, killing an unknown villain suddenly seemed like a trivial matter. After all, without this power, I was sure I would have lost her. It was hard to say we had made it completely in time. Thinking about the psychological trauma she had suffered back when she was Yanagi, I worried about how deeply she had been scarred this time. But still, at least I had managed to prevent the worst from happening.

“Aaaah… Miss… how terrible… I… I…”

Scott, the old man I’d left waiting outside the room, collapsed upon seeing Iris sleeping in my arms.

“…Don’t blame yourself any further. Thanks to you, we avoided the worst-case scenario… I’m grateful.”
“No way! I shouldn’t be the one receiving thanks like that… I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry…”

The old man’s sobbing wouldn’t stop for quite a while, but judging by his reaction, there was no doubt he had been genuinely worried about Iris. Before I knew it, my anger toward him had vanished. When I looked over at Sol, he just shook his head, silently signaling he had no intention of blaming Scott any further either. In that case, it was entirely up to Iris to decide what to do next—it wasn’t our place to say anything about it.

.

“I’m sorry… I know this is a bold request… but there are still young lasses down in the basement who were brought here by those guys… Could you maybe help save them too?”

According to the now-calmer old man, some of the abducted women were from neighboring towns. There might even be people from the town we had initially been transported to.

“…Of course. Please lead the way.”
“Yes, this way.”

The underground area we reached, guided by the old man, was a horrific sight. A foul stench—a lingering mix of mold, blood, and bestial lust—hung in the air, so overpowering it made it hard to breathe. Inside, devices clearly intended for indecent purposes were scattered about, and in one corner, locked inside a cage that looked like it was meant for large animals, several young women were huddled together, trembling.

“…These b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲ really were beyond saving.”

The bandits’ atrocities had clearly taken many forms; some of the girls bore severe bruises and wounds, others had deformed limbs, and a few were even missing body parts. The thought that, had we arrived a moment later, Iris might have ended up like them filled me with a terror so intense it felt as if my heart were being crushed. If it were just injuries, Iris could probably heal them once she woke up, but we couldn’t very well wake her now—she was completely exhausted, her face slightly pale as she breathed quietly in my arms. I left it to Sol, who signaled with his eyes, *Leave this to me*. Since Sol was a woman on the inside, she would probably be more considerate, and it wasn’t a sight I should be staring at anyway. Though, to be fair, we were both physically men in this world.
While Sol broke the cage lock and shattered the restraints on the girls’ hands and feet, the old man and I stepped out into the hallway.

“So, what are we going to do with these girls? Just so you know, they don’t have any clothes on them, and I don’t think walking all the way to town from out here is feasible under any circumstances.”
“Yes… If we go back to town and talk to the mayor, I think he’ll send someone to pick them up…”
“Still, leaving them here all alone doesn’t feel right…”

It might have sounded heartless, but our top priority was Iris. To be honest, we just wanted to get her out of this filthy place as soon as possible and take her somewhere safe. Once we found a place where she could rest, like an inn, we would go report the situation, and we wouldn’t mind helping out afterward…

“In that case, I’ll stay behind and look after them.”
“…Are you sure? If it’s just you, well, what if they retaliated against you?”

It seemed this old man hadn’t been involved in those acts; he’d apparently been taking care of their daily needs, preparing their meals amongst other things. Still, to the captured girls, he was undoubtedly part of the band of hated bandits, and there was no telling what might’ve happened to him once they were freed.

“…I figure that’s just the way it is. It’s true that I turned a blind eye to what those guys were doing, and if the girls want to beat me up or even kill me, I think that’s a punishment I should accept without complaint.”

Hearing the old man declare he was fully prepared for the consequences, there was nothing more I could say to him.

“I see… Sorry, I’ll leave this to you. I’ll make sure to send someone to pick you up as soon as possible.”
“Yes… Please take good care of young Miss.”
“You don’t have to tell me that… Just make sure you come back alive and apologize to her.”
“Yes, I understand.”

.

And so, after meeting back up with Sol, who had finished administering basic first aid, we retraced our steps and returned to the town we had started in.

It turned out there were missing people from this town as well. When we reported that we’d defeated the bandits and rescued the captive women, the town mayor—who had been plagued by their crimes—thanked us profusely and immediately sent a rescue party of young men from the town to pick them up.

As a token of gratitude for our help, we were given a room to stay in… and it wasn’t until three days later that Iris finally woke up.